John Brown

John Brown (9 May 1800-2 December 1859) was an American abolitionist and the leader of a failed raid on Harpers Ferry, Maryland in 1859. Brown was a veteran of the Bleeding Kansas upheaval, during which he fought to make Kansas a free state, and he led a failed slave uprising at the Harpers Ferry armory in 1859, leading to his execution.

Biography
John Brown was born in Torrington, Connecticut on 9 May 1800, and he became a cattle and leather salesman. Brown lived in Ohio for a few years, and he vowed to dedicate his live to the destruction of slavery after the newspaper editor Elijah Parish Lovejoy was murdered by a pro-slavery activist in 1837. In 1846, he moved to Springfield, Massachusetts, where he formed an anti-slavery circle of businessmen. In 1855, Brown decided to head to Kansas to help in protecting anti-slavery families from the militant pro-slavery Border Ruffians, and he led the murder of five Border Ruffians at Pottawatomie on 24-25 May 1856. Brown took part in the war against the Border Ruffians throughout 1856, losing his son in the process. In 1858, he planned to lead a slave uprising in the American South, and Massachusetts abolitionists supplied him with pikes and guns. Frederick Douglas refused to join Brown's uprising, and Brown went ahead with the uprising on 16-18 October 1859 with 8 white men, 12 free African-Americans, and 2 slaves. Government troops killed 10 of the rebels and captured Brown and 6 others, and many people asked for Brown to be pardoned, including French author Victor Hugo, who feared "Washington killing Spartacus." On 2 December 1859, he was hanged for treason.